iLounge brings up this interesting, and true-sounding, story of iPhone peripheral manufacturers getting pre-briefed on specs for the 3G iPhone before the device is even announced. It makes sense since these companies need the specs to make cases that actually fit, but only need as little detail as possible to do so. Here's what one of these manufacturer says the new one will have: slightly different tapering on the edges, a different speaker/mic hole setup, slightly different sensor arrangement (possibly even a front camera), and a red, white or black color scheme.

It's very interesting, even if one or more of these details could be misinformation given out to different companies to determine which one of them is spilling the beans on Apple's confidential specs. The big difference about the appearance seems to be the ditching of the brushed metal/black plastic look on the back in favor of a more plastic look that approximates metal, like a car, or Iron Man. [iLounge]